Top 10 Strangest Diseases

10Oct07

This is official. And I stole it from a Gun Community Website so I don’t feel too bad. But I may get shot.

10. Walking Corpse Syndrome: Characterized by people who believe they have died.

The syndrome has highly suicidal tendencies and depression, during which the sufferer complains of having lost everything including possessions and part of or their entire body. They believe that they have died and are walking as a corpse. The delusion is generally expanded to the degree that the patient might state that he can feel and smell his own rotting flesh as worms crawl through the skin.

9. Vampire Disease: Characterized by pain from the sun

Some people in this world must take extreme measure to avoid the sun. Exposure to the sun makes their skin blister. Many of these people have pain and blistering as soon as the skin is exposed to the sun. This vamper like symptom, gave the disease its name.

8. Jumping Frenchman Disorder: Characterized by strange reflexes

The primary characteristic of the disease is that it leaves patients highly startled by any unexpected sight or noise. Far more than twitching when someone sneaks up behind you, sufferers of this disorder cry out, flail their arms and repeat words. The disorder was first found in some of Maine’s lumberjacks of French Canadian origin, the odd reflex has been identified throughout other parts of the world too.

7. Blaschko’s Lines: Characterized by strange stripes all over the body

Blaschko’s lines are very rare and an unexplained phenomenon of human anatomy discovered in 1901 by Alfred Blaschko, a German dermatologist. Blaschko’s lines are an invisible pattern built into human DNA. Many acquired and inherited diseases of the skin or mucosa appear according to these patters. This creates the visual appearance of stripes on the human body.

6. Pica: Characterized by the urge to eat non-food substances

People suffering from Pica have an endless urge to eat various types of non-food substances including paper, dirt, glue and clay. Health experts have not found a real cause nor a cure for this disease despite reports that it may be linked to mineral deficiency.

5. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome: Characterized by time, space and body image distortion

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS), or micropsia, is a highly disorienting neurological condition which affects human visual perception. Sufferers of the disease view humans, animals, parts of humans and inanimate objects as substantially smaller than in reality. Most often, the object perceived appears further away or extremely close all at the same time. For example, a normal sized car, may appear as a small toy and a pet dog may be perceived as being the size of a mouse.

4. Blue Skin Disorder: the blue people

Throughout the 1960s a large family of “blue people” resided in the Kentucky hills near Troublesome Creek. They were known as the Blue Fugates. Many never had a serious illness and most lived past aged 80 despite having blue skin. The trait was passed from generation to generation. Many people with this condition have blue, indigo, plum or almost purple skin.

3. Werewolf Syndrome: Characterized by excessive hair

Young children suffering from this disease can grow large, dark, hairy patches on their face. The disease is called Werewolf syndrome because people resemble werewolves with excessive hair and without the sharp teeth or claws.

2. Elephantiasis: Characterized by grossly enlarged members

Lymphatic filarisis which is also called elephantiasis, is best seen from dramatic photos of individuals with grossly enlarged or swollen legs and arms. The disease is caused by parasitic worms which are all transmitted by mosquitoes. The disease affects 120 million people throughout the world and 40 million of these people have serious disease. An infected female mosquito bites a person and injects larvae into the blood. The larvae spread and can live for many years. Ultimately the parasites accumulate in the surrounding tissues. The common signs of this disease are overlarged arms legs, breasts and genitalia.

1. Progeria: Characterized by children looking as though they are 90 years old.

Progeria is caused by one tiny defect within the child’s genetic code. This disease has very hard and devastating consequences. Most children born with the disease will die by the age of 13. As their bodies speed through the process of aging, they develop physical symptoms of older people including heart disease, premature baldness, thinning bones and arthritis. This disease is extremely rare with only 48 people living with it throughout the world. There is one family however with five children suffering from the disease.